Billy Childish
GrowthEgon research · Artist market profile
The market, in context.
Explore Billy Childish’s auction history alongside the exhibitions, collections and gallery relationships behind the market.
Auction record
£163,800 (about $218,138), premium-inclusive
toward a shore (2019), oil and charcoal on linen, 244 x 183 cm
View the sale and market context →Institutional research
Collections & exhibitions
Read holdings, exhibition history and their qualifications in context.
Read the institutional research →
Egon investment scores
Market position
Research updated
Auction record
Liquidity
- Depth
- Moderate and dominated by prints at the low end. Few evening-sale appearances.
Volume
Aggregators give different counts. Artsy shows 55 'yearly lots sold' and a 33.3% sell-through over 36 months (these figures probably mix prints and regional sales and are internally inconsistent). askART lists 119 lots, 80 sold. Invaluable lists about 108 sold results. At the major houses, unique paintings appear about 4-8 times a year, mostly in Phillips online and day sales.
Sell through
Mixed. Recent major-house oils mostly sell, but visible no-price outcomes (Astrakhan Hat and Flower Bonnet, HK 2024; The Artist on His Way to Work; Cherry Trees; umiak Alaska) and a history of buy-ins after estimate rises (Artsy) show that estimate discipline matters.
Collector base
International, with a strong Asian (especially South Korean) component since 2020: the Seoul buyers reported by NYT via Artsy, the Asian and US underbidders on the 2022 record, and Phillips Hong Kong placements. There is also a UK and European base built through L-13, Carl Freedman and neugerriemschneider. Private and private-museum collections listed by the gallery: Boros (Berlin), Goetz (Munich), TBA21 (Vienna), Braunsfelder (Cologne), Long Museum (Shanghai), He Art Museum, Xiao Museum, AT G+ Museum, Amorepacific, KR KaviarFactory (Oslo), Ingram Collection (London). A separate cult audience from music and poetry supports the lower-priced print market.
Auction history
Record
- Date
- 1 March 2022
- Work
- toward a shore (2019), oil and charcoal on linen, 244 x 183 cm
- Price
- £163,800 (about $218,138), premium-inclusive
- Venue
- Christie's London, 20th/21st Century London Evening Sale, lot 26
- Context
- Artsy says six bidders from Asia and the US competed. MutualArt gives $218,148 as the record since 2008.
- Estimate
- £30,000-50,000
Other houses
- Christie's / Bonhams: 'Gerberas and Delphiniums' (2009), oil on linen, 121.5x91.3 cm, Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Sale, 29 Jun 2023 (listed by Artsy; result not retrieved).
- Christie's: 'The artist in his studio', oil and charcoal on linen, est. $150,000-250,000 (Invaluable listing; date and result not retrieved). The highest estimate seen for the artist.
- 'DRUNK' (1993), oil on wood panels, 45.5x65.5 cm, est. £3,000-5,000, offered 29 Oct 2025 and again 8 Jul 2026 (Invaluable). The repeat offering suggests it did not sell in Oct 2025; not confirmed. July 2026 result not retrieved.
- Germann (Zurich) 'Sledgers study', est. CHF 2,000-4,000, 23 Jun 2026 (result not retrieved).
- 'Homage to Van Gogh' (2004), group of 12 giclée prints, est. £1,000-1,500, 31 Mar 2026 (result not retrieved).
- Regional UK houses (Chiswick, Roseberys, Dreweatts, Sworders, Cheffins) regularly handle prints and early small works (Invaluable seller list).
Database summary note
Internal 2025-onward data for Phillips / Christie's / Sotheby's / Bonhams: 4 sold lots from about 5 settled (80% sell-through). Premium-inclusive range $11,158-$72,097. 2 upcoming lots are recorded; details were not supplied.
Historical trajectory pre 2022
Per Artsy (March 2022): auction records begin in 2008. Sales stayed under about £10,000, rising to £15,000 for a self-portrait at Phillips in 2010. Estimates then crept up and buy-ins increased as collectors refused the higher estimates. In 2015 a Christie's online sale made $56,250, about four times estimate, but the price did not hold and more buy-ins followed.
Current pricing
Primary market
Controlled by the galleries. Prices are not published by Lehmann Maupin, Carl Freedman Gallery or neugerriemschneider; ask Lehmann Maupin (New York/London/Seoul) or Carl Freedman Gallery (Margate) for current prices. Artsy (via NYT) reports that four of seven paintings sold for about $30,000 each at the 2020 Lehmann Maupin Seoul opening, three to South Korean buyers. Estimates of current primary prices are not established from checked sources.
Historical ranges
2008-2014: mostly under £10,000, with a £15,000 peak in 2010. 2015: $56,250 outlier at Christie's online, followed by buy-ins. 2020-2022: Asian and US demand after the Lehmann Maupin Seoul show, peaking at £163,800 in Mar 2022. 2024-2025: large oils settled at about £24k-£54k, with mid-size works at £8k-£13k.
Secondary 2024 2026
- Prints multiples
- Roughly £400-£1,500 / $945-$1,524 (Gestetner duplicator prints, lithographs, giclée sets). Keep these apart from unique works in any average.
- Early works 1980s 90s on board
- About £2,000-£11,000.
Major oils large linen 2010s 2020s
About £24,000-£54,000 at Phillips London/HK for strong recent landscape and figure canvases (girl in swimming £44,450; Man Howling to Wolves £54,180; sunrise and distant burn-off HK$206,400 ≈ $26k; Birch Trees with Spring Snow HK$482,600 ≈ $62k). The 2022 outlier, a 244 cm canvas at £163,800, has not been approached since in the sources checked.
- Mid size self portraits and still lifes
- About £8,000-£13,000 (Self-portrait in Astrachan Hat £8,385; 3 Skulls on a Shoreline £9,675).
Peer comparables
Figurative painters in the Munch / Van Gogh lineage often compared with him: Peter Doig (far higher market, benchmark only), Stuckist peers such as Charles Thomson (far lower market). Among figurative painters represented by the same mid-to-upper galleries, Childish's secondary prices of about £10k-£55k sit in the mid-market band. No quantitative peer index was retrieved.
Investment outlook
The market has consolidated after the 2022 spike. Recent Phillips results beat estimates at the top (Man Howling to Wolves, sunrise and distant burn-off), but the £163,800 record is a single large-scale outlier, not a floor. What drives the market is steady primary programming across three galleries and Asian demand. The main risks are high output (thousands of paintings), a large supply of prints, and the gap between auction and primary pricing. Scenario, not a forecast: continued museum-level exhibitions in Asia or Europe could support large canvases at £30k-£60k; a pullback in Asian demand would likely push them back toward £15k-£30k.
Institutional presence
Research updated
Exhibitions
Significant group
- British Art Show 5 (2000; Edinburgh, including the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art; Southampton; Cardiff, including the National Museum; Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery / Ikon)
- Das Unendliche im Endlichen. Romantik und Gegenwart, Kunstsammlung Jena (2015)
- Paintings Sweet Paintings, Neuer Aachener Kunstverein (2014)
- Our Friend Larionov, All-Russian Decorative Art Museum, Moscow (2016) / Pushkin House, London (2014)
- The Kelly Family, Esther Schipper, Cologne (1992)
- UCA - A Retrospective, Rochester Art Gallery (2023)
Gallery solo recent
- Lehmann Maupin NY 'keep mojave weird', 8 Jan-28 Feb 2026
- Carl Freedman Gallery Margate 'This Is The Universe... Big Isn't It?', 26 Apr-14 Jun 2026
- neugerriemschneider Berlin 'billy childish and the children of the sect' (with Huddie and Scout Hamper), 11 Sep-7 Nov 2026 (current)
- Yi Space Hangzhou 'the becoming unbecoming', 2025
- Lehmann Maupin No.9 Cork Street London 'like a god i love all things', 30 Jan-15 Feb 2025
- Lehmann Maupin Seoul 'now protected, I step forth', 4 Jul-17 Aug 2024
- neugerriemschneider 'paintings from fossilised cretaceous seams', 2024
- Carl Freedman Margate 'Looking at Paintings', 2023
- Lehmann Maupin NY 'Spirit Guides and Other Guardians Joining Heaven and Earth', 10 Nov 2022-7 Jan 2023
- Lehmann Maupin London 'where the black water slid', 2022
Museum and institutional solo
A Rock Poet between the Spiritual and Natural World
- Note
- Private collecting museum
- Year
- 2024
- Venue
- He Art Museum (HEM), Guangdong, China
Billy Childish: Man With Jackdaw
- Year
- 2017
- Venue
- Villa Schöningen, Berlin/Potsdam
mountain view house
- Year
- 2017
- Venue
- Goss-Michael Foundation, Dallas
Billy Childish in Print (A Survey)
- Year
- 2016
- Venue
- Rochester Art Gallery, Kent
unbegreiflich aber gewiss
- Year
- 2016
- Venue
- Opelvillen Rüsselsheim, Germany
View 7 more records
Frozen estuary and Other Paintings of the Divine Ordinary
- Year
- 2012
- Venue
- The Smithery, The Historic Dockyard, Chatham
Billy Childish: Unknowable but Certain
- Note
- Non-collecting institution, with a residency
- Year
- 2010
- Venue
- Institute of Contemporary Arts, London
- Note
- Non-collecting non-profit
- Year
- 2010
- Venue
- White Columns, New York
Bomb grammar
- Year
- 2010
- Venue
- Maison de la Poesie, Basel
High Atlas
- Year
- 2009
- Venue
- Sidney Cooper Gallery, Canterbury Christ Church University
25 Years of Being Childish
- Year
- 2002
- Venue
- Kent Institute of Art & Design, Maidstone
- Year
- 1999
- Venue
- Metropole Arts Centre, Folkestone
Museum tier
Not a Tier 1 holding verified. The strongest verified holdings are the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Fitzwilliam Museum (national/major UK museums, provisionally Tier 2), per Art UK.
Publications
Monographs
Billy Childish (3 vols.)
- Note
- From the gallery CV bibliography
- Publisher
- Koenig, London
2008 publication by Neal Brown with a preface by Peter Doig
- Note
- Per Artsy. Exact title not retrieved.
Literary output
More than 40 poetry collections and several novels (for example 'My Fault', 'Notebooks of a Naked Youth'), published by Tangerine Press, L-13, Hangman Books and Slick Fly. The Uncorrected Billy Childish (only poets piss in sinks), 2026.
- Catalogue raisonne
- None published (Masterworks). Authentication and provenance usually go through the representing galleries.
- Tier framework
- named-institutions-v1
Museum collections
Other museums
Long Museum, Shanghai
- Note
- Private museum. Listed only on the gallery CV; not confirmed independently.
- Credit line
- credit line unknown
HEM - He Art Museum, Shunde, China
- Note
- Gallery CV. Also hosted a 2024 solo show.
- Credit line
- credit line unknown
Xiao Museum of Contemporary Art, Rizhao; AT G+ Museum, Fujian; Amorepacific Art Museum, Seoul
- Note
- Listed only on the gallery CV.
- Credit line
- credit line unknown
TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna; Boros Collection, Berlin; Goetz Collection, Munich; Braunsfelder Family Collection, Cologne; KR KaviarFactory, Oslo; Ingram Collection, London
Note
Private or foundation collections, not independent collecting museums. Listed on the gallery CV. The Ingram Collection is confirmed on Art UK ('Billy and Dolli'; 'Self Portrait with Gallows Tattoo').
- Credit line
- credit line unknown
Tier 2 museums
'Reunion Owl'
- Note
- Listed on Art UK and on the Lehmann Maupin CV. Medium not retrieved, possibly a print. The V&A is a national art-and-design museum.
- Credit line
- credit line unknown (not retrieved; seen via the Art UK listing)
- Institution
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London
'Art or Arse'; 'Devine Conception'
- Note
- Art UK listing. Medium not retrieved, possibly works on paper or prints.
- Credit line
- credit line unknown
- Institution
- The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge
Untitled [Billy Childish and Tracey Emin], 1982, black-and-white photograph, accession P2021:2
Note
Documented on the museum object page, which attributes the work to Billy Childish. Provenance: Peter Pavement, c.1990-98; F. Hawryliw, 1998; donated 2021. Gift route: whether curators initiated it is unresolved. It is a photograph, not a painting.
- Credit line
- Gift of F. Hawryliw, 2021
- Institution
- Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, NY
Tier 3 museums
'Alaskan Packer'
- Note
- Art UK listing. A national collection used for government buildings.
- Credit line
- credit line unknown
- Institution
- Government Art Collection (UK)
Unverified claims
Hang Up Pictures (a dealer) lists Tate Britain and the British Museum. Neither appears on the Lehmann Maupin public-collections list or in the Art UK venues checked. Treat as unresolved; this could be library, archive or ephemera material (see Words & Pictures, an artists' magazine held in complete sets at Tate). Not counted.
Smithsonian candidate
The Smithsonian Libraries record 'Tate St Ives: summer 2009' lists Childish as an author of a book. That is bibliographic evidence, not a holding of his art at any Smithsonian museum.
Awards and recognition
- Honorary Doctor of Arts, University of Kent, July 2014 (Masterworks)
- Residencies: ICA London (2010); Historic Dockyard Chatham (2011)
- No competitive national painting prizes found in the sources checked.
Career & Biography
Research updated
Identity
Birth
1 December 1959, Chatham, Kent, England (Wikipedia; Masterworks Academy; WikiArt). Lehmann Maupin and Carl Freedman give 'b. 1959, Chatham, Kent'.
- Gender
- male
Aliases
William Charlie Hamper, Bill Hamper, Bill Hamper-Childish, Jack Ketch, Gus Claudius and others (Wikipedia). Family: older brother Nichollas Hamper, also an artist (Art UK); spouse Julie Hamper; children Huddie and Scout Hamper, both painters and musicians (neugerriemschneider 2026 exhibition text).
Ulan check
The Getty ULAN record (500124678: English painter, poet and printmaker born 1959; British; roles artist, musician, poet, painter, printmaker) matches the independent sources on birth year, nationality and roles. Only the birth year is corroborated; ULAN gives no full date.
- Nationality
- British (English)
- Current location
- Lives and works in Chatham, Kent, UK (Lehmann Maupin; Carl Freedman Gallery: 'Kent')
- Name used by sources
- Billy Childish (born Steven John Hamper)
Education
Medway College of Design, Kent (now University for the Creative Arts)
- Years
- 1977 (foundation year 1977-78 per Wikipedia)
- Degree
- No completed qualification (Masterworks)
Saint Martin's School of Art, London (painting)
- Years
- Entered 1978 and left a month later; readmitted 1980
Degree
None. Expelled. The date differs between sources: Lehmann Maupin and Masterworks say 1981, Wikipedia says 1982 (for refusing to paint in the art school and unruly behaviour).
University of Kent
- Years
- July 2014
- Degree
- Honorary Doctor of Arts (Masterworks)
Career timeline
- Year
- c.1975-77
Event
Left school at 16. Worked as an apprentice stonemason at Chatham Naval Dockyard and made hundreds of drawings there (about 600 per Dellasposa), which got him into art school.
- Year
- 1977 onward
Event
Garage-punk music career: Pop Rivets, Thee Milkshakes, Thee Mighty Caesars, Thee Headcoats, Buff Medways, Musicians of the British Empire, CTMF. More than 100 albums. Co-founded the Medway Poets.
- Year
- early-mid 1980s
- Event
- Relationship with Tracey Emin, on whom Wikipedia says he was a 'major influence'.
- Year
- 1980s-1990s
Event
Early solo shows: De Media, Eeklo (1986); 5 Dryden Street, London (1988); Westwerk, Hamburg (1990); Cubitt Gallery, London (1994, 1995), with Peter Doig co-curating his first London show (Wikipedia). Lived on the dole for about 15 years.
- Year
- 1999-2001
- Event
- Co-founded Stuckism with Charles Thomson in 1999 and left in 2001.
View 8 more records
- Year
- 2000
- Event
- Included in British Art Show 5 (Edinburgh, Southampton, Cardiff, Birmingham).
- Year
- 2003-2012
- Event
- Worked with L-13 / The Aquarium L-13 in London: exhibitions and publishing.
- Year
- 2008
- Event
- Monograph by critic Neal Brown with a preface by Peter Doig (per Artsy).
- Year
- 2010
Event
Solo show 'Unknowable but Certain' and residency at the ICA, London, alongside a White Columns, New York show. First neugerriemschneider show in Berlin.
- Year
- 2011
- Event
- First Lehmann Maupin solo show, 'I am the Billy Childish', New York. Artist-in-residence at the Historic Dockyard, Chatham.
- Year
- 2013-2019
Event
Regular shows at Lehmann Maupin (NY, Hong Kong), Carl Freedman Gallery (London, later Margate) and neugerriemschneider. Opelvillen Rüsselsheim (2016), Rochester Art Gallery print survey (2016), Villa Schöningen Berlin and Goss-Michael Foundation Dallas (2017).
- Year
- 2020-2022
- Event
- Lehmann Maupin shows in Seoul, New York and London. Auction record in March 2022 at Christie's London (£163,800).
- Year
- 2024-2026
Event
Museum solo 'A Rock Poet between the Spiritual and Natural World', He Art Museum, Guangdong, China (2024). Lehmann Maupin Seoul (2024), London/No.9 Cork Street (2025) and New York 'keep mojave weird' (8 Jan-28 Feb 2026). Yi Space, Hangzhou (2025). Carl Freedman Margate 'This Is The Universe... Big Isn't It?' (26 Apr-14 Jun 2026). neugerriemschneider, Berlin, with his children (11 Sep-7 Nov 2026).
Studio practice
Paints most days in his studio at the Historic Dockyard, Chatham (1stDibs; Masterworks). Works mainly in oil and charcoal on linen, often large and square (for example 122x122 cm or 244x183 cm), and draws on his own life, family and travel imagery. The 2025 California road trip produced 'keep mojave weird'. Recent work is painted in a shared studio with his children.
Political social stance
Anti-careerist and anti-conceptualist. Speaks for amateurism and free emotional expression. Stuckism opposed the commodification of art (Art UK). Turned down Celebrity Big Brother in 2006. Undiagnosed dyslexic who writes in phonetic spelling.
Personal life shaping work
Working-class Medway upbringing, dyslexia, years on the dole, and his relationship with Emin are recurring autobiographical material. He has practised yoga and meditation since the early 1990s, which feeds the later spiritual and landscape work.
Artistic influences and context
Influences
Edvard Munch, Vincent van Gogh (for example 'Handing the Loaded Revolver to the Enemy: Homage to Vincent Van Gogh', 2004), Kurt Schwitters (Dellasposa), blues music. Calls himself a 'radical traditionalist'.
Contemporaries
Peter Doig (friend from Saint Martin's, co-curated his first London show, wrote the preface to the 2008 monograph), Tracey Emin, Charles Thomson (Stuckism), Sexton Ming and the Medway Poets circle.
Artistic Profile
Research updated
Style
Direct, fast, autobiographical figuration with sinuous contour drawing in dark charcoal or paint, flat decorative colour fields and visible raw linen. Calls himself a 'radical traditionalist'. Recent work leans toward a sublime, almost Symbolist landscape register (Tahoma / Mount Rainier, Mojave, Lake Tahoe, birch forests, wolves, suns and moons).
Evolution
1980s-90s: raw, confessional oils on board and woodcuts about his dockyard youth, abuse, drinking and relationships. 1999-2001: Stuckist polemic. 2000s: Van Gogh homages and first institutional attention. 2010s: large oil-and-charcoal canvases of landscapes, swimmers, birch trees and self-portraits, bigger in scale and more luminous. 2020s: monumental landscapes of the American West and Pacific Northwest, spiritual 'guardian' imagery, and collaboration with his children.
Influences
Edvard Munch, Vincent van Gogh, Kurt Schwitters, Giovanni Segantini, Emil Nolde, James Ensor, blues and folk music, the films of Powell & Pressburger.
Visual language
Swimmers and waders in concentric ripples, lone figures against banded horizons, birch trunks, glowing suns and moons, painted borders, stippled foregrounds and unpainted raw-linen margins.
Signature series
- 'Spirit Guides and Other Guardians Joining Heaven and Earth' (2022)
- 'keep mojave weird' (2026, California landscapes)
- 'This Is The Universe... Big Isn't It?' (2026, after Powell & Pressburger's A Matter of Life and Death)
- Swimmer / wader series (girl in swimming, yuga river; sunrise and distant burn-off)
- Wolf paintings (Man Howling to Wolves; wolves, sunsets and the self, 2020)
- 'toward a shore' (2019), the auction record work
Themes and subjects
- Self-portraiture and autobiography: the artist in astrakhan hat, with jackdaw or thunderbird, on his way to work
- Family: wife Julie, children Huddie and Scout; the 2026 Berlin show pairs him with his children
- Landscape of Kent (Medway estuary, Chatham Dockyard), Scandinavia, the Alps (Segantini's hut) and the American West (Alaska, Tahoma, Mojave, Lake Tahoe)
- Animal totems (wolves, deer, jackdaws, owls)
- Vanitas and mortality (skulls on a shoreline, Dance of Death)
- Homage and art history (Van Gogh, Munch, Hans Fallada, Powell & Pressburger)
- Spiritual and universal content: he says his portraits represent 'the universal and the eternal, not the specific'
Movements and periods
Contemporary British figurative and expressionist painting. Co-founder of Stuckism (1999-2001), the anti-conceptual movement for figurative painting, and he still insists on being independent of any movement. Linked to the Medway scene (Medway Poets, garage punk). Critics place him after Munch, Van Gogh and German Expressionism and near Peter Doig's romantic figuration.
Techniques and mediums
- Oil and charcoal on (often unprimed) linen, the dominant medium since the 2000s, frequently in square or monumental formats (122x122 cm up to 244x183 cm)
- Oil on board and wood panels (1980s-90s works)
- Oil and charcoal on wood, sculptural or panel works (for example 'Ashes Of Then', 2025, 49x51x122 cm)
- Watercolour
- Woodcuts, linocuts, Gestetner duplicator prints, lithographs, giclée editions
- Photography (for example the 1982 photograph in Buffalo AKG)
- Poetry, film and music as parallel media
Fingerprint verification
Confirmed
The internal fingerprint's neo-expressionist, Munch- and Nolde-adjacent reading, its oil-on-raw-linen technique, the landscape plus body themes, the solitary contemplative figures and the vanitas skulls all match the gallery descriptions and lot records.
Extensions
The fingerprint is built from 2010-present auction images only. It leaves out the (1) 1980s-90s oils on board, which are rawer, darker and more confessional; (2) prints and woodcuts, a large part of the market; (3) the recent high-key, larger-scale American West landscapes (Mojave, Tahoma), which are sunnier and more saturated than its 'cool, muted, desaturated' palette tags; (4) charcoal as a named co-medium in almost all recent canvases; (5) photography.
Disagreement
The tags 'muted/desaturated palette' fit the skull and estuary works. Many 2020s landscapes use strong complementary colour (orange suns, violet mountains, turquoise water). Compare a work to the nearest exemplar by period, not to a single palette.
Critical Reception
Research updated
Critical reception
Summary
Critics have followed two parallel careers, painter and musician-writer. Early coverage treated him as a cult underground figure and as Tracey Emin's ex-partner. From British Art Show 5 (2000) and the ICA / White Columns shows (2010) critics began to read him as a serious figurative painter. Recent coverage frames him as a deliberately unfashionable 'radical traditionalist' in the line of Munch and Van Gogh.
Scholarly
No catalogue raisonné. Monographs include a 2008 book by critic Neal Brown with a preface by Peter Doig (per Artsy) and the three-volume 'Billy Childish' (Koenig). His connection to the Stuckism movement gives him a place in academic accounts of anti-conceptual British painting around 2000. Independent museum scholarship is limited; ICA and He Art Museum exhibition publications were not retrieved.
List inclusions
No tier-1 'artists to watch' list inclusion found, which fits a mid-career artist of more than 40 years. Artsy's 2022 'breakout' auction article is the nearest equivalent.
Key reviews and coverage
Seaside surrealism, a techno Man Ray and new paintings from Billy Childish
- Date
- 2025-01-31
- Author
- Jonathan Jones
- Publication
- The Guardian
- Date
- 2024-11-30
- Author
- Ted Kessler
- Publication
- The Guardian
Review: Billy Childish: 'Where the Black Water Slid'
- Date
- 2022-06-30
- Author
- Eddy Frankel
- Publication
- Time Out London
Review of 'wolves, sunsets and the self', Lehmann Maupin Seoul
- Date
- 2020-06-25
- Author
- Byunghee Lee
- Publication
- Flash Art
In Seoul, the Art World Gets Back to Business
- Date
- 2020-04-27
- Author
- Su-Hyun Lee and Brett Sokol
- Publication
- The New York Times
View 5 more records
- Date
- 2020-04-28
- Author
- Kwon Mee-yoo
- Publication
- The Korea Times
- Date
- 2012-01-03
- Publication
- Art in America
- Date
- 2011-11-16
- Note
- Listed on the Lehmann Maupin press page; content not retrieved
- Publication
- Artforum
- Date
- 2025-01
- Note
- Listing and preview of the No.9 Cork Street show, not a review
- Publication
- frieze
- Date
- 2022-03
- Note
- '8 Artists Who Had Breakout Moments at London's March 2022 Auctions'
- Publication
- Artsy editorial
Publications and media
Big literary and music footprint: more than 40 poetry collections, several novels and more than 100 albums. Poetry Archive profile. Guardian profiles in 2020 ('My fascination with myself': his life in pictures) and earlier ones (Will Hodgkinson). This cultural visibility outside the art world supports demand for prints and ephemera.
Gallery & Representation
Research updated
Fair presence
Lehmann Maupin shows at Frieze London / Frieze Seoul, No.9 Cork Street (Frieze-run space, 2025) and Art Basel Hong Kong. Specific booth appearances were not verified.
Representation
Galleries
Lehmann Maupin
- Tier
- 1
- Since
- 2011
- Status
- current
- Location
- New York / London / Seoul
- Institution tier
- 2
Carl Freedman Gallery
- Tier
- 1
- Since
- c.2013
- Status
- current
- Location
- Margate, UK (formerly London)
- Institution tier
- 3
neugerriemschneider
- Tier
- 1
- Since
- 2010
- Status
- current
- Location
- Berlin, Germany
- Institution tier
- 2
L-13 Light Industrial Workshop / The Aquarium L-13
- Tier
- 0
- Since
- 2003
- Status
- former
- Location
- London
Galleria Paolo Curti / Annamaria Gambuzzi & Co.
- Tier
- 0
- Since
- 2015
- Status
- former
- Location
- Milan
View 4 more records
Hancock Gallery
- Tier
- 0
- Status
- secondary
- Location
- UK
Dellasposa Gallery
- Tier
- 0
- Status
- secondary
- Location
- London
Baldwin Contemporary
- Tier
- 0
- Status
- secondary
- Location
- London / online
Counter Editions
- Tier
- 0
- Status
- secondary
- Location
- London
Gallery history
Cubitt Gallery (1994-95, co-curated with Doig) → Flowers East (1998) → L-13 / Aquarium (2003-2012) → neugerriemschneider (2010-) → Lehmann Maupin (2011-) → Carl Freedman (c.2013-).
Geographic reach
UK, Germany, US, South Korea, Hong Kong and mainland China (He Art Museum 2024, Yi Space Hangzhou 2025). Auction demand centres on London and Phillips Hong Kong.
Representation basis
Masterworks names Lehmann Maupin and Carl Freedman as representatives, and both galleries keep artist pages. neugerriemschneider has shown him steadily since 2010 (solo shows 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2018, 2022, 2024, 2026) and appears in image credits ('Courtesy the artist and neugerriemschneider'). That long record is treated as representation, but no explicit statement was retrieved. L-13 and Milan are past exhibitors. Hancock, Dellasposa, Baldwin Contemporary and Counter Editions (editions) are dealers or secondary sellers; group or online offerings do not establish representation.
Institution tier rationale
Lehmann Maupin is an internationally active mid-to-upper gallery with three cities, below the named Tier 1 mega-galleries: Tier 2. neugerriemschneider is an internationally influential Berlin gallery: Tier 2. Carl Freedman Gallery has sustained UK programming: Tier 3. Market-power code: 1 for all three.
Sources & research notes
Egon’s artist research combines historical auction records, recent sales, institutional history, critical reception and gallery information. Researched auction records and auction highlights are identified separately.
Read prices with their work, sale date, currency and stated basis. Egon’s market assessments are distinct from reported auction results.
Reference: Egon, “Billy Childish: Market Intelligence & Investment Profile.”
Evidence & qualifications
These notes preserve the sources, status and qualifications recorded in the research.
Auction record: 'toward a shore' (2019) sold for £163,800 ($218,138) at Christie's London, lot 26, 1 March 2022, against an estimate of £30,000-50,000. Six bidders from Asia and the US competed.
Market · Reported · Event: 2022-03-01 · Source retrieved: 2026-09-29
Artsy editorial account, consistent with MutualArt ($218,148) and art.salon (Christie's lot 26). The Christie's lot page itself was not fetched.
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-8-artists-breakout-moments-londons-march-auctionsThe Phillips artist page lists 'Man Howling to Wolves' (est. £15,000-20,000) sold for £54,180 and 'sunrise and distant burn-off' (est. HK$80,000-120,000) sold for HK$206,400. 'The Artist on His Way to Work' (est. $20,000-30,000) shows no sold price.
Market · Documented · Event: 2025 · Source retrieved: 2026-09-29
Sale dates for the first two (Oct and Sep 2025) come from the internal database and Artsy. The absence of a price for The Artist on His Way to Work only suggests a buy-in or withdrawal and is not confirmed.
https://www.phillips.com/artist/2687/billy-childishMarket history per Artsy: auction records start in 2008 and stayed under about £10k, rising to £15k in 2010. A 2015 Christie's online sale made $56,250 (about four times estimate), followed by several buy-ins. Four of seven paintings sold for about $30,000 each at the 2020 Seoul opening, three to South Korean buyers (NYT).
Market · Reported · Event: 2008-2022 · Source retrieved: 2026-09-29
Secondary editorial summary. The individual pre-2022 lots were not verified.
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-8-artists-breakout-moments-londons-march-auctions'DRUNK' (1993) was offered at £3,000-5,000 on 29 Oct 2025 and again on 8 Jul 2026.
Market · Unresolved · Event: 2025-10-29 / 2026-07-08 · Source retrieved: 2026-09-29
The repeat offering suggests the October 2025 lot did not sell, but neither outcome was retrieved. The auction house is not named in the snippet.
https://www.invaluable.com/artist/childish-billy-v7rpor0t5s/sold-at-auction-prices/The Buffalo AKG Art Museum holds 'Untitled [Billy Childish and Tracey Emin]' (1982), a black-and-white photograph attributed to Billy Childish, accession P2021:2, credit line 'Gift of F. Hawryliw, 2021'.
Institutional · Documented · Event: 2021 · Source retrieved: 2026-09-29
Gift route from a private individual; whether curators initiated it is unresolved. A small photograph, not a painting.
https://buffaloakg.org/artworks/p20212-untitled-billy-childish-and-tracey-eminThe Lehmann Maupin CV lists public collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum, Buffalo AKG, Long Museum, He Art Museum, TBA21, Boros, Goetz, Ingram Collection, Amorepacific and others. It lists no Tate.
Institutional · Reported · Source retrieved: 2025-09-24
The gallery's own claim. Several entries are private collections. Only Buffalo AKG is confirmed on a museum page; the V&A, Fitzwilliam, GAC and Ingram are corroborated by Art UK listings.
https://www.lehmannmaupin.com/attachment/en/5b363dcb6aa72c840f8e552f/TextOneColumnWithFile/5b3649e8a09a72437d8b497bArt UK lists works in the Victoria and Albert Museum ('Reunion Owl'), the Fitzwilliam Museum ('Art or Arse', 'Devine Conception'), the Government Art Collection ('Alaskan Packer') and the Ingram Collection.
Institutional · Reported · Source retrieved: 2026-09-29
Aggregator listing seen in a search snippet. Individual museum records, media and credit lines were not retrieved.
https://artuk.org/discover/artists/childish-billy-b-1959Tate Britain and British Museum holdings are claimed by dealer Hang Up Pictures.
Institutional · Unresolved · Source retrieved: 2026-09-29
Not on the gallery CV or Art UK. Not confirmed in any Tate or British Museum record checked. Excluded from scoring.
https://hanguppictures.com/artists/billy-childishInstitutional solo shows include the ICA London (2010) and He Art Museum, Guangdong (2024). Group participation includes British Art Show 5 (2000).
Institutional · Reported · Event: 2000-2024 · Source retrieved: 2025-09-24
From the gallery CV. The ICA is a non-collecting venue; He Art Museum is a private museum.
https://www.lehmannmaupin.com/attachment/en/5b363dcb6aa72c840f8e552f/TextOneColumnWithFile/5b3649e8a09a72437d8b497bThe Lehmann Maupin press page lists Guardian coverage by Jonathan Jones (31 Jan 2025), Time Out review by Eddy Frankel (30 Jun 2022), Flash Art review by Byunghee Lee (25 Jun 2020), NYT (27 Apr 2020), Art in America (Jan 2012) and Artforum (Nov 2011).
Critical · Reported · Event: 2011-2025 · Source retrieved: 2026-09-29
The gallery's press compilation, seen via a search snippet. The texts of the individual articles were not read, so their tone is not characterised.
https://www.lehmannmaupin.com/artists/billy-childish/press
Research bibliography · 28 sources
Sources recorded for this artist’s research. This bibliography does not assign every source to an individual claim.
- Billy Childish - Biography - Lehmann Maupin
- Billy Childish CV - Lehmann Maupin
- Billy Childish - Exhibitions - Lehmann Maupin
- Billy Childish - keep mojave weird - Lehmann Maupin
- Billy Childish - Press - Lehmann Maupin
- Billy Childish - Wikipedia
- Billy Childish - Masterworks Academy
- Childish, Billy, b.1959 - Art UK
- Billy Childish - Phillips artist page
- Phillips Modern & Contemporary Art Online Auction London, Oct 2025
- Phillips search results: Billy Childish
- Billy Childish - Self Portrate - Phillips Wired Online 2022
- 8 Artists Who Had Breakout Moments at London's March 2022 Auctions - Artsy
- Billy Childish - Auction Results - Artsy
- Billy Childish - MutualArt
- toward a shore by Billy Childish - art.salon
- Billy Childish Sold at Auction Prices - Invaluable
- Billy Childish auction records - askART
- Untitled [Billy Childish and Tracey Emin] - Buffalo AKG Art Museum
- Billy Childish - Hang Up Pictures
- Billy Childish - Carl Freedman Gallery
- Billy Childish, This Is The Universe... Big Isn't It? - Carl Freedman Gallery
- Billy Childish, Huddie Hamper & Scout Hamper - neugerriemschneider - ART@Berlin
- Billy Childish Exhibitions - Ocula
- Billy Childish - frieze
- Billy Childish - Dellasposa
- British Artist Billy Childish - 1stDibs Introspective
- Billy Childish - Frozen Estuary - Lehmann Maupin
Research updates by section
These dates show when Egon’s research sections were updated. Source retrieval dates, where supplied above, refer to individual evidence notes.
Ranking updated . Research sections follow their own update dates.
You've seen Billy Childish's trajectory. The question isn't the data — it's what it means for you. Egon provides acquisition strategies calibrated to your collection and budget.
Get personalized analysisActive market signals
Inside Egon
Signal timeline & strength analysis
Gallery moves, auction records, institutional acquisitions, price milestones — tracked over 90 days
Full signal timeline, strength analysis, and alert configuration for Billy Childish.
Collector demographics & buyer analysis
Geographic distribution, institutional vs. private buyers, collector profiles, and secondary market activity
Who is collecting Billy Childish? Geographic distribution, institutional vs. private buyers, and collector profile analysis.
Personalized acquisition strategy
Optimal entry points, comparable pricing analysis, timing recommendations, and portfolio fit assessment
Personalized acquisition strategy for Billy Childish based on your budget, timeline, and collection goals.
Go deeper with personalized intelligence
You now have Egon's market assessment of Billy Childish. The next question is personal: does this artist belong in your collection? Egon analyzes collection fit based on your aesthetic thesis, existing holdings, budget, and investment goals — delivering acquisition strategies no public index can provide.